Marc Cabrera has nothing better to do than watch a lot of movies and television, and listen to a lot of music. Luckily, he has a job that pays him to blog about local and national arts, entertainment and pop culture. He can be reached at mcabrera@montereyherald.com.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Editors note: Today is day two of the Sledge Grits Band of Salinas's trip to New York City, where they are gearing up to perform on CBS Early Show. Band member Keiko Sledge and mom Wendy Sledge give us this special blog report:

Keiko:

Today we woke up early and we went and had breakfast with the producers of the show and the band we are competing against. That was really fun meeting with everybody.

We went over to the place where we would be rehearsing, CBS studios. We rehearsed there, we watched the other band. They were really good.

We got to hear how it sounded on actual TV. It was pretty cool in the studio.

After that, we went out into the city. We went into FAO Schwartz. We looked around, went window shopping. Then we came home and relaxed and rehearsed.

In the recording studio, at first, we rehearsed on the actual stage that you would see in the segment. It was on the revolving stage they set up. I didn't expect so many people to be around. They had lots of producers and lots of people helping. There was lighting and sound people and it was so cool. We got to experience how the microphones work and how the studio works.

I was expecting to have to set up my own stuff, but we didn't. They did it for us.

Meeting the other band was really fun. They're all right around our ages. It goes from age 6 to 7 8 t 9, then there's a gap. Then it goes from age 12-13, 14-15.

We were amongst the kids. There wasn't any real competition amongst the kids. We got to listen to each other, they were really supportive of our stuff and we were really supportive of their stuff.

All I can say is the songs we are both performing are pretty different. They are both gospel of course, but besides that they're pretty different.

We are in for the night. I think we're going to order in again. We are just rehearsing what we can. We're trying to talk momma into letting us walk around, but she wants us in bed early. We have to be in the studio by 5 am., so we'll be up really early about 3 a.m.

We're going to be really excited tonight. We're going to turn off all the lights and I'm sure momma is going to tell us be quiet, be quiet. Besides that, it's been a long couple of days with the time changes and everything, so I'm sure we'll be able to get some sleep before tomorrow.

Wendy

We got up early and went to have b fast. it was nice to put a face to the names of some of the people we've been speaking to the last month.

The other band were really nice people.

We went to the studio. It's just amazing. They have amazing sound people over there. We got the girls all situated.

In the studio they practiced their song. It was actually quite quick that they got the stage down and everything. I think people are going to like the performance tomorrow. They've changed it a little bit, it worked out really well.

From there, they had taken the kids earlier in the day to Central Park. It was just a trip that right in the middle of this big old city was this big old park.

Just taking the kids to the toy store, that was really fun. They had the best time.

The other band's song is a little more different than the girls. They chose more of an upbeat song. We have more of a vocally driven song.

The other band goes second. We go first. We flipped a coin and I lost.

At first I thought it was going to put us at a disadvantage, but I think it's going to be to our advantage going second. As long as the girls hit the song, i think they'll have a little bit of an edge.

It's time to settle in and maybe just watch some TV for a little bit. It's about 7 p.m. right now

It's so funny. Last night, the alarm clock in the hotel room wasn't set right. It started up at 12 a.m. My husband and I were on edge, so we both jumped up out of bed. It feels like every time we close our eyes the alarm clock goes off. That kind of goes to show the kind of week we're having.